1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a unique mounting bracket for securing a bed rail to stake holes provided in the carrier sidewalls surrounding a bed of a pickup truck.
2. Description of the Related Art
Adding bed rails to the carrier sidewalls of a pickup bed has become quite popular with pickup truck owners. The added bed rails are both decorative and functional. One of the problems in designing a universal bed rail to fit any pickup truck is that different pickup truck manufacturers provide their pickups with stake holes of different dimensions.
One common means for attaching a bed rail to a pickup bed's carrier sidewalls is to employ a mounting bracket provided with an expandable gasket. The expandable gasket inserts in a stake hole and then the gasket is compressed to expand the gasket against the walls of the stake hole to thus hold the mounting bracket to the carrier sidewall. The expandable gasket works well when used on stake holes of constant dimensions, such as for example in use on only FORD.RTM. pickups. However, the same mounting bracket employing a compressible gasket will not secure to a DODGE.RTM. pickup, which has a slightly smaller stake hole than those found on FORD.RTM. products, nor will it secure to a CHEVROLET.RTM. pickup, which has still smaller stake holes than those provided on the DODGE.RTM. products.
The present invention solves this problem by providing a universal bed rail mount which can be used to secure a bed rail to a variety of sizes of stake holes.
An object of the invention is to provide a universal bed rail mount capable of fitting almost any pickup truck.
A further object of the invention is to provide a bed rail mount with a horizontal opening for a mounting screw which will not fill with rainwater and present a problem of the screw rusting over time.
A further object of the invention is to provide a functional and attractive bed rail mount.
A final object of the present invention is to provide a strong and economical bed rail mount.